...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Friday, 4 September 2015

Take Me Deeper - September Week 1

Here we are again! This past week has seen the end of the school summer holidays, and the end of the day-on-day sunshine as well! We took our rabbits to a 'bunny-whisperer', and ascertained once and for all that these two brothers, who were once so close won't ever be able to go in the same hutch or run again. It's very sad, and all because they have had to be separated for 6 weeks following their castration ops which, shall we say, didn't go as they should have, and the ensuing complications and additional operations forced the separation. However, as they are not miserable being in separate accommodation but together in the same space, so they can sit right by each other, the lady agreed that they'd be fine and we wouldn't need to get them a girlfriend each if we didn't want to! Phew! Going from 2 rabbits to 4 would have been a stretch, LOL, and the cost of the insurance alone would have been a problem along with everything else!So, we've bought an additional hutch which is waiting to be made up...but now our annual visit from the mining bees seems to be starting - a little later than the past few years, probably because of the chill and the rain! There's no way the kids - or I, LOL - will clean out two hutches surrounded by mining bees! If you haven't heard of them you're not alone - my 91 year old dad had never heard of them before we moved here! If you haven't seen one before, they look just like wasps! And as wasps sting for no reason, it's hard to get the risk of being surrounded by what look like wasps out of your head! Actually there's very little risk - mining bees are very placid, and, as they tunnel up and down through the soil, they're used to be being in confined spaces. So even getting one up your trouser leg as I did last year, won't result in a sting! Unlike a wasp! Mining bees are not protected in the UK, and I read they're not even much use for pollinating, so it's rather frustrating to give up our whole garden for 6 weeks each year at this time...but also something quite special!So the rabbits will go into their hutches in the conservatory and then once our visitors have left they'll be out in the garden in the new 15'x6' enclosure we made for them during the summer! Hopefully we won't get a harsh winter or it will only be a couple of months and they'll be back in the conservatory again!

So, less chat from me, LOL, and here's the artwork, with my thoughts as I prepared to create!

September Week 1 - Equipped for Life

This is actually the second piece I created for this week's devotional! The first piece, well, I really didn't have any idea what to create and it was more of a playing with techniques than making art, I feel. I do like it but it didn't feel as 'from the heart' as I'd have liked. So I'm going to keep that, maybe work on it some more, and maybe its time will come later in the month!

Having left that first piece alone for a few days, I found myself with some creating time and so took another look at the Bible verses I'd written out from the first study. Immediately an image came to me, so clear, that I sat down and created this straight off! Wow!

The verses that especially inspired this image were:

Isaiah 54:10 - "Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

and 2 Peter 1:3 - His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

and finally Romans 9:4 - They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises.

This is so much more what I wanted to create originally! It has much more of a family, loving and loved feel to it, I think. I used 4 or 5 different textures in this and have decided to set myself a little challenge of using those same textures within each piece this month and see how far I can stretch them to work in different ways! I like the way these textures interacted to give quite an old fashioned look to the piece, so I hope I can achieve that each week!

As well as the various CU textures, I used CU brushes and digital images from His Kingdom Come of course! I just clipped one of the background textures to each figure to give the appearance of silhouetted figures which are part of their surroundings. Very slight blur added to them to take off the sharp edges and give the impression of distance.
Really enjoyed myself with this piece!
TFL!